The Government believes that due to its importance the document should be adopted by consensus among all parliamentary parties.
"We will try to achieve and keep the consensus. It's a precondition that will make us much stronger in the (entry) negotiations with the EU, that will give us much more tailwind and make us achieve results we otherwise wouldn't," said Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
"If we succeed in the negotiations, there won't be one winner, we'll all have won, Croatia will have won, and if we fail, then we're all to blame," he added, reiterating that consensus was the best way to achieve the best results in the negotiations.
The Government endorsed an inter-party task force which will draw up an act defining the fundamental principles of Croatia's admission to the EU.
This is why the Government did not formally take positions on five such drafts moved by the clubs of deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the Peasant Party/Social Democrats, the Party of Rights, the People's Party/Primorje-Gorski Kotar Alliance, and the Independent Democratic Serb Party.
The Government endorsed a joint Parliament-Government statement on cooperation in EU entry negotiations moved by the HDZ club of deputies. It confirms the two bodies' readiness for the start of the negotiations on March 17 and underlines the importance of setting up a parliamentary national committee which will monitor the entry talks.
Chief negotiator Vladimir Drobnjak said the negotiations would be difficult but that there was no reason not to be optimistic. "I'm confident Croatia will have a good and professional negotiating team which will face the best and the best paid bureaucracy in Europe." He underlined the importance of transparent negotiations.
Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul said the negotiations would revolve around few political issues, focusing instead on how and at what pace to apply what the European Commission already adopted. Zuzul shares the Government's optimism that negotiations on all chapters would end in the course of 2007.
Drobnjak announced he would hold the first preparatory, technical meeting in Brussels on Monday, saying this was the start of formal preparations for the negotiations.
Zuzul and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic will start the talks in Brussels the night before, while Sanader will join the delegation on Monday.